It is almost certainly the biggest political question in America today: What impact will Ron DeSantis have on the GOP race for the 2024 nomination.
It is well understood that the Florida Governor will be running in 2024, it’s just a matter of when he may choose to enter the race formally. There are plenty of outstanding hurdles for former President Donald Trump, including a potentially disastrous indictment by the DOJ, and there’s no reason for DeSantis to spend time and money trying to topple Trump when Merrick Garland might just do it for him.
At the same time, Biden’s DOJ could sit on any potential indictment to prevent DeSantis from jumping into the race with enough time to even make it interesting, and so we find ourselves in a strange and anxious holding pattern.
According to a new poll, if Ron doesn’t get into the race rather quickly, he risks losing it all.
Former President Trump holds at 17-point lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in a hypothetical GOP primary match-up, according to a new poll.
A Morning Consult poll released Wednesday showed Trump with 48 percent support among potential Republican primary voters, followed by DeSantis with 31 percent. Trump’s front-runner position differs from some polls since the November midterm elections, which have shown DeSantis closing the gap with Trump or taking a lead in some cases.
Former Vice President Mike Pence came in third with 8 percent, followed by former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) with 3 percent. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) both received 2 percent.
And also:
Among Trump voters in the most recent poll, DeSantis is comfortably the second choice, with 44 percent backing the Florida governor. About 20 percent would support Pence, and 7 percent would back Cruz.
Just over a third of DeSantis supporters would vote for Trump as their second choice, while 14 percent would support Pence and 13 percent would back Haley.
Pollsters found Trump’s favorability rating among potential Republican primary voters to be improving over the past month, with 77 percent having a favorable view of him. Trump’s net favorability rating, taken from subtracting the percentage who view him unfavorably from the percentage who view him favorably, passed 50 percent in the Morning Consult polling for the first time in almost a month.
The timeline here is rather delicate for DeSantis, and these are precisely the sort of polls that can deliver an itch to his trigger finger.
